This invention relates generally to an intake manifold for a vehicle engine, and more particularly to an intake manifold with a low-profile design.
An intake manifold in a vehicle engine is used for receiving air for delivery to the engine. A conventional intake manifold is a one piece design mounted to the top of the engine. The intake manifold generally includes a housing, one or more air inlets, or access ports, opening into an internal plenum area, and one or more conduits, or runners, leading from the plenum area to each engine cylinder. The conventional intake manifold is part of an engine intake system, which includes one or more intake tubes and fuel injectors. The intake tubes receive air from the environment and deliver the air to the intake manifold. Air is received into the plenum area via the air inlets. The air then disperses to the runners for delivery to each engine cylinder. Fuel is typically delivered to the runners via fuel injection passages which receive the fuel from fuel injectors. The fuel and air then mix together, and the air-fuel mixture in the intake manifold runners is delivered via cylinder inlets to each cylinder of the engine.
An important feature of the intake manifold is the runner length. The intake manifold runners must be of a sufficient length to provide a fuel-flow velocity which efficiently delivers the air-fuel mixture to the engine cylinders. Conventional intake manifold runners typically extend into the plenum area of the intake manifold or extend externally of the intake manifold housing in order to provide the necessary runner length. This results in the intake manifold being too large to accommodate an air compressor mounted on top of the intake manifold within the engine compartment.
Optionally, an air compressor can be mounted within the engine compartment to receive the air from the intake tubes, compress the air, and deliver the compressed air to the intake manifold. The air compressor functions to provide additional air to the engine and enables more power to be generated by the engine. A bypass valve can also be mounted on the intake manifold to allow air from the intake manifold to be recirculated to intake tubes based on the vacuum state in the plenum area.
The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) hood for vehicles is designed to close over an OEM intake manifold and other engine components. The OEM hood is minimized in height over the components in the engine compartment in order to improve the vehicle's aerodynamics, as well as to minimize any detrimental effect on the vision of the vehicle operator. If one desires to install an air compressor to provide increased air flow to the intake manifold, the air compressor is usually installed in locations other than on top of the OEM intake manifold due to the lack of space. If the air compressor is mounted on top of the intake manifold, there is usually not enough space available under the OEM hood. Rather, the original hood must be replaced with an enlarged-space hood, which increases the cost associated with installing an air compressor, as well as reducing the vehicles aerodynamics and vehicle operator vision. Alternatively, an area is cut out of the original hood, which can lead to issues with structural instability, as well as increasing the cost due to the cutting involved and makes the hood of less value for resale.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an intake manifold having a low-profile design. The new intake manifold should allow a user to mount an air compressor on top of the intake manifold without having to replace or modify the OEM hood.